I have often heard real estate agents called self-serving who live on the unethical border, are constantly concerned with What’s-In-It-For-Me and are prime candidates for the Megalomaniac Club.
There seems to be an idea that these people are successfully serving themselves at the expense of those who are honest, service-minded and ethical.
To be honest, I have seen agents like this succeed, at least in terms of financial success. Many I know or have read about appear to have personal problems and very little insight but they are successful in making money or gaining power. However, I don’t think they represent the true meaning of success, and I think they are in the minority, AND I don’t think they are truly serving “self” very well.
To truly serve “self” one must take into account the other “selves” that make up the society in which we live and work interdependently as real estate professionals.
Also, to truly serve self one must understand what “self” is and adhere to the aphorism most often attributed to Socrates – Know thyself. Can a self isolated in petty, short term greed and raw ambition really know what is best for self? Or is it blindly and ignorantly led along never satisfied, never insightful, never connected to others?
It seems a self such as this is lost and a slave to hungers which the self doesn’t fully understand, and doesn’t have control over. If a disconnected and lost self achieves financial success, what has been achieved? More often, unless sociopathy is involved, financial success is illusory, a lonely, unfulfilling pursuit, unless it is accompanied by a full knowledge of self in relation to others. In other words, paradoxically, self-centeredness finds no self at the center, nothing there to enjoy success or even to define success – the result being that blind and ignorant self-serving actually destroys self.
God knows I’m not a religious man, but the Bible has some pretty awesome wisdom in it:
Luke 9:25
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
As a real estate professional do I want to be successful?
Yes, on well thought out terms.
At any cost? No.
First, I need to know myself, and this is usually accomplished through my dealings with others coupled with an open minded pursuit of insight into what motivates me and what is actually good for “self” – am I operating on principles, honoring my relationships with honesty and integrity, or am I blindly flailing in uncontrolled hunger destroying relationships along with my “self”?
Do I do this to perfection? Ha! I would like to thank myself for a laugh this beautiful Tuesday morning.
Mike from Savannah